Venue: Committee Room A, Town Hall, Royal Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1RS. View directions
Contact: Nick Peeters, Scrutiny & Performance Officer
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Apologies for Absence Apologies for absence as reported at the meeting. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Chapelard and Gray. |
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Declarations of Interest To receive any declarations of interest by Members in items on the agenda. For any advice on declarations of interest, please contact the Monitoring Officer. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest made, within the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Members. |
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Minutes of Previous Meetings PDF 255 KB Minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting dated 11 December 2017. The Chairman will move that the minutes of the previous meeting be signed as a correct record. The only issue relating to the minutes that can be discussed is their accuracy. Procedure rules applicable to all meetings Part 4, section 6. Minutes: The minutes of the meetings dated 11 December 2018 were submitted.
RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Committee meeting dated 11 December 2018 be agreed. |
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Items Called in under Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 13 If there are any ‘Call-in’ items, details will have been circulated to Members under separate cover. Minutes: There were no items which had been called-in under Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 13. |
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Chairman's Introduction Minutes: The Chair confirmed the order of the agenda. |
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Portfolio Plans and Progress - Tourism, Leisure and Economic Development PDF 161 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Jane March, Portfolio Holder for Tourism, Leisure and Economic Development, highlighted her achievements in 2016-2017 as detailed in appendix A to the report and ambitions for 2017-18. Councillor March referred in particular to the following areas of her portfolio:
· The success of the House, as a venue for creative and digital workspace, was a result of partnership work with Kent County Council. It was now at 100 percent occupancy and extra premises were being looked at to extend opportunities.
· Two jobs and training fairs were facilitated by the West Kent Partnership, in partnership with Jobcentre Plus and the autumn event took place in the Assembly Hall Theatre, with 330 attendees and 31 businesses. The next event would be in March 2018, in Sevenoaks. The events included workshops that helped attendees search for jobs and write CVs. The West Kent Partnership also hosted a Skillsfest in October 2017, in the Assembly Hall Theatre with 1200 students attending along with 75 employers
· The West Kent Partnership would be hosting a business event in February 2018 as part of the ‘Grow Kent’ series of business events. This would be an interactive panel session.
· The Council was part of the West Kent Leader Programme which secures grant funding for rural areas. Between 2015-2020, £1.8 million of grant funding would have been secured for famers, growers, foresters, rural entrepreneurs and rural communities. Benenden Community Shop was an example of a rural community business that had benefited from the funding.
· The West Kent Network involved West Kent Partnership, Kent County Council, and the Careers and Enterprise Company and had established the Kent Enterprise Advisor Network. The Network connected schools and businesses to develop student and employer engagement programmes.
· Royal Tunbridge Wells Together was a town centre partnership with 60 members across a range of sectors and business sizes. The achievements of the Partnership and a ‘town map’ were tabled. The Partnership initiated, promoted and coordinated the September Food Festival in Calverley Grounds with 15000 visitors attending over a weekend and 77 percent of stallholders coming from Kent and Sussex.
· A town centre Business Improvement District was being developed with consultants about to be commissioned to look at a feasibility study. The lead in time could be several years.
· The Council, along with the Department for International Trade, organised a business breakfast seminar in December 2017. The event was attended by 100 local businesses and looked at international marketing.
· The visittunbridgewells website had themed feature pages and guest blogs. The Council and Royal Tunbridge Wells Together had agreed to work together to update the shopping pages on the website. Shops in the borough had been asked to provide photos of premises facades to advertise on the website. The response had been low so the Council would be taking the photos itself.
· Explore Kent provided a complete range of circular walks aimed at improving health and fitness for residents. Signage and furniture on the route had been improved. Leaflets to advertise the route were available. Tour operators, ... view the full minutes text for item OSC57/15 |
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Civic Development - verbal update Minutes: The Head of Economic Development and Property, David Candlin, provided an update on the Civic Development. Mr Candlin highlighted the following areas:
· The Supplementary Planning Framework document would be presented to Full Council on 21 February and identified a number of changes proposed. The document would also include the comments received to the Planning consultation.
· The Planning application was submitted and validated in January 2018. Members were invited to a consultation event during the day at the Camden Centre then became a public consultation event in the evening. As part of the planning application, a report was submitted that focused on the wider economic benefits of the new theatre and office developments. Based on the statutory 13 week period for the consideration of major applications, the potential target date for consideration of the application by the Planning Committee was 13 April. This date was dependant on all the information required by Planning being provided on time.
· The Civic Complex, which included the Town Hall, the Assembly Hall Theatre, 9-10 Calverley Terrace and 30-36 Crescent Road were all buildings identified as potentially enabling development and were a separate work-stream. It was hoped that discussions with the Leadership Board on the timetable for the Complex would take place in March with a timetable produced in May. The advice was to bring the Complex to the Market approximately two years prior to the Council leaving the Town Hall. Some of the sites, such as the Crescent Road properties could be brought forward earlier as there were no operational restrictions. In addition, consideration was needed as to whether other Council owned sites in the block, were included or excluded.
· The Project Management team would be appointed through the OJEU compliant Homes and Communities Property Panel Framework which involved 16-22 different consultants. The tender evaluation would be based 50 percent on price and 50 percent on quality. Prior to Christmas a ‘sifting’ brief (with four key questions) was sent to the six consultants who had expressed an interest. Invitations to tender were sent out after Christmas for a lead consultant and project management services and these appointments were currently being completed. The decision to make the appointments had been agreed by Full Council as a delegated officer decision, to be made by the Head of Economic Development and Property and Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Leader and the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Governance.
· The project would be a two-stage design and build process and the preferred route was the OJEU compliant (Official Journal of the European Union) Southern Construction Framework. There were eight contractors in this framework and five of the eight contractors who had been invited to express an interest had responded. A shortlist of tenderers had been agreed and the Southern Framework reviewed those who had responded and identified how they met the brief. The range of how well the tenderers met the brief ranged between 60-80 percent. Four contractors were chosen for the tendering process with responses due for ... view the full minutes text for item OSC58/15 |
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Task and Finish Group(s) Update - verbal update Minutes: The Scrutiny and Performance Officer provided an update on the work of the Planning Application Process Task and Finish Group. Mr Peeters advised that the Group’s final meeting had taken place and a final report would be circulated to the Group members prior to its inclusion in the 9 April agenda.
Councillor Hills updated Members on the responses to the final report of the Tackling Excessive Speeds in Rural Areas Task and Finish Group which had been circulated to a number of stakeholders including Greg Clark MP. Councillor Hills advised that a response had not yet been received. |
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Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme 2017-18 PDF 147 KB Minutes: The Scrutiny and Performance Officer, Nick Peeters, provided an update on the Committees work programme. Mr Peeters referred to the reunification of the Tunbridge Wells West and Uckfield rail link which, although not on the Committee’s work programme, had been raised previously as a topic for discussion. Mr Peeters advised Members that Lewes District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee had continued with its work in looking at the reopening of the Lewes to Uckfield link and produced a report which supported the reopening and electrification of the line. Councillor Woodward had supported this topic as there was a wider discussion to be had on providing better public transport links in light of the civic development and in particular the new theatre. Councillor Woodward felt that discussions could be held with Lewes District Council and the Spa valley Railway to explore opportunities. The Head of Economic Development and Property, David Candlin said internally, an officer report had been produced which looked at the opportunities involved in the Tunbridge Wells link and further on to Croydon. Mr Candlin advised that a Member update could be provided but reminded Members that, as yet, there was still no business case for the reopening of the line.
Councillor Hannam asked for an update from the on the tender document for the procurement of the Household Waste/Recycling contract at the 9 April Meeting. The Chairman, Councillor Dawlings requested that the update include discussions held on the recycling centres the county. |
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Urgent Business To consider any other items which the Chairman decides are urgent, for the reasons to be stated, in accordance with Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972. Minutes: There was no urgent business. |
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Date of the next meeting The next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will take place on Monday 9 April, 2018. Minutes: The next scheduled meeting of the Committee would take place on Monday 9 April 2018. |